Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Brain Plan

So here's what I've some up with so far in my attempt to salvage what brain cells I have left. Per Monique's suggestion, I'm going to brush up on my French. I took a few years of it in high school, and I have always wanted to be fluent in a second language. And since French is the language I know the most of, I figured I'd start there. Allez! I'm going to use the free language software available through the local library. It's called Mango Languages. It's not my favorite, but it's free. If I finish all 100 lessons they have and decide I want more, I may splurge for the Rosetta Stone. I'm trying to do a lesson per day. It only takes me about 15 minutes to do each one at this point, but it's all stuff I know already.

Step 2 in the brain plan is to read more intelligent books. This isn't exactly the same as less brainless fiction, mind you. I'll just cram a few intelligent ones in between. So right now I'm reading a book about a guy who is going around to the happiest countries in the world and trying to figure out what makes them that way. Good stuff. Next in line is a biography on Marie Antoinette. But there will be fiction in between. I can't take that much seriousness all at once.

Step 3, play the piano every day. I play the piano at church, so I was kind of doing this anyway, since the only way I can play decently in public is to practice, practice, practice. But I find playing the piano to be therapeutic. There is a song for any mood I may be in. I may even splurge and take piano lessons. There are a couple ladies in the neighborhood who teach, I just need to find out what they charge. It would be nice to have something else to play besides church hymns, and taking lessons would force me to play these other things. But I'm cheap, so the lessons may not happen.

And so far that's all I've come up with. I would like a creative outlet of some sort, but I tend to get all engrossed in any hobby I take up, so I need to be careful with that one. And I really need to throw some physical element into this all. Ideally I would have an indoor pool in my house so I could swim every day. But alas, my parents never installed one. So between the kids and having to go to a gym and pay money to swim, this one is going to need some further planning and analysis. If I can figure out those two things, creativity and exercise, I think I'll be doing pretty good. So wish me bon chance, as the French would say, that I can bring the brain leakage to a halt.

2 comments:

I was hoping you would choose the Oreos. :) I also took French in Middle school and would LOVE to learn a useful language. Shhhh! Don't tell the Hungarians I said that! But it really has helped me feel ... I don't know. . . productive? learned? I don't know, but it feels good. I would also love to learn (correctly) how to play the piano. If you remember me in RS, you KNOW I need a lot of help.

Je M'appelle Monique. Oi! Je t'aime.Ta toi!

And that's pretty much all the retention I have in French. Besides the numbers, but that doesn't really count. Good luck!!